On the rear deck of “Aurora” enjoying a bit of the remarkable and everlasting sunshine we’ve had on this cruise.
On the Promenade Deck, still inside the Arctic Circle, enjoying the warmth and the sunshine at 11:45 at night, after the evening theatre performance.
So blatantly self indulgent! (sun filter on the camera – it’s not getting dark!)
It must be about midnight by now!
We’ve had some of the loveliest of dinner companions during the cruise – we all gelled straight away. Here’s Christabelle and Willie (seated left) Ian and Eileen (standing left) and Sandy and Steve (right). We’ve had a real hoot every evening.
We anchored at Geiranger at the top of its 9 mile fjord on Saturday morning. The surroundings at sea level in this lovely place are just pure, wild beauty and very fitting as it’s a World Heritage site.
Twins do you think?
All the melt waters from the Geiranger valley gush down this tremendous waterfall. The recently constructed steps up from the village allow some great close up experiences. You need to be fast at taking photos as the lens gets wet very quickly!
At the top of the waterfall you get a super view of little Geiranger and the head of the fjord. There are only 300 hundred residents in the village but they welcome over 600,000 visitors every year. The acclamation that it’s “the most magnificent and the most beautiful of Norway’s fjords” is well founded.
We half expected a Troll to emerge from this little shed!
From the top of the waterfall it’s a short walk to the fascinating little octagonal church built in 1842. In true Norwegian style all the gravestones are perfectly upright and in line!
We took a bus ride up the precipitous road to Mount Dalsnibba, 4,500 feet above the village. We stopped briefly at Flydalsjuvet on the way up to take in this spectacular view towards the village and the fjord.
There are six little mountain houses dead centre in the pic. They’re constructed of wood and stone with grass roofs – almost impossible to see.
After countless hair-pin bends and shear drops down the mountain side we arrived above the snow line where, in some places, the snow was still several metres deep.
Passing a huge frozen lake we took the even steeper road up to the top of Mount Dalsnibba ……
…… where, in places, the road had been cut out of several metres of deep snow.
And then we arrived!
This is nature at its very best – words are unimportant in this level of adventure. Much of the the road from Geiranger can be seen as it snakes its way up the valley. All praise to the young driver that so skilfully got us to the top of the mountain and back again. “Aurora” is the little white spec in the distance.
Just to prove we were there!
The ride back down had a lot of us on tenter hooks – this is a relatively level bit of road but in some parts it was very steep. Everywhere the water tumbles down.
We left Geiranger in the evening having had a truly memorable day. Mount Dalsnibba is the one just right of centre.
Many of us enjoyed the Great British Sail Away on “Aurora’s” rear decks while the awesome scenery of the Geirangerfjord passed close by on each side.
The Seven Sisters waterfall - falling a thousand feet into the waters of the fjord.
At this point along the Geirangerfjord we counted 23 waterfalls within sight.
Another fjord branches off the main waterway. The regular car ferry, which had been journeying with us from Geiranger left us at this point (far left).
There were miles of the Geirangerfjord left to travel before we got to the sea and the start of our two day journey back to Southampton. With heavy hearts we now make our way back home.
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